Front cover of the Gulshan Album

Jahangir’s refined and eclectic taste is revealed in the sumptuous Gulshan (Rose garden) Album. The exceptional quality of the album and the extensive world with which it shows Jahangir to have been in contact were important expressions of his claim to imperial authority.

Production on the album began around 1595, a decade before Jahangir succeeded to the Mughal throne. The ambitious project was ultimately completed during the reign of his son Shah Jahan, whose official poet wrote the Persian verses in AH 1041 (1631–32 CE).

This hunter has the profile and mustache of the young prince Salim [the future emperor Jahangir]. The tower (in the distance above his horse’s head) is the Qutb Minar, a minaret erected outside Delhi in 1193. Salim/Jahangir often enjoyed the imperial hunting grounds near the lofty minaret.

This hunter appears to be the emperor Akbar – who always wore a small turban, was usually represented in three-quarter profile, and loved riding elephants. He advances towards a lioness who fiercely defends her cubs.

The Persian verses read in part: “From the springtime of the garden of paradise the scribe of omnipotence has produced a multicolored copy of the world. I take pride in this beautiful album. . . The beauty of its calligraphy is so perfect that the celestial sphere has brought forth pure gold from the mine of dawn for its gilding.”